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November 2015

November 30, 2015

(If this is your first visit to St. Blogory's, and you are mystified by the title for this blog post, please read these two introductory blogs by clicking here and here.)

Opening Prayer

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Closing Noonday and Afternoon Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

Closing Evening Prayer

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.

November 29, 2015

(If this is your first visit to St. Blogory's, and you are mystified by the title for this blog post, please read the two previous blogs by clicking here and here.)

Opening Prayer

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Closing Noonday and Afternoon Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

Closing Evening Prayer

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.

November 28, 2015

Yesterday I invited you, as an Advent discipline, to try St. Blogory's 2015B.A.S.I.C.Program:

Bill's Advent Scripture Invitational Challenge

— to establish a daily habit of 15 minutes of Bible reading, and to read passages from all 66 books of the Bible in 33 days, as you sit in your designated Bible Chair or stand in your designated Bible Corner.

Accepting this Advent discipline is one way to put ADVENT back in Christmas, and here's why:

The real cultural "war" isn't the so-called "War on Christmas"— unless you mean its commercialization.

If there's any sort of "war" it's a war against Advent, a season of spiritual preparation for the first Advent of Christ in Bethlehem and the second Advent of Christ from heaven at the end of time.

The commercialization of Christmas is seen in the frantic preparation for Presents, rather than the Advent preparation for Presence.

St. Blogory's 2015 B.A.S.I.C. Program is one way to prepare for God's Presence.

The B.A.S.I.C. discipline includes

1. Identifying a "Bible Chair" or "Bible Corner" in your home or office where you will do your 15 minutes of Bible reading each day.

2. Finding a Bible translation you want to use.

(Bible citations begin with the name of the book, followed by the chapter number, a colon, and the verses. For example, Genesis 1:1-2:3 is the book of Genesis, beginning with chapter 1, verse 1, and on through chapter 2, verse 3.)

4. And, depending on when you do your reading, a prayer for Morning, Noon, or Evening.

There are 39 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament Books, so some days will feature two Old Testament readings. When there are both Old and New Testament readings, see whether you can catch a common theme or message.

Tomorrow, on the First Sunday of Advent, I will publish the B.A.S.I.C. readings for

Day 1: Monday, November 30

for those who wish to begin your day bright and early with your Advent discipline.

Similarly, on Monday, November 30 I will publish the readings for Tuesday, December 1, and on through Day 33.

Tomorrow, in every Episcopal Church, this Collect* for the First Sunday of Advent will be prayed:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I wish you a Happy and Blessed Advent.

* Before reading from Holy Scripture at our celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, Episcopalians (and Lutherans and Roman Catholics and the members of other liturgical Churches) offer a prayer known as a Collect (pronounced CAH-lect] which helps us collect [pronounced cuh-LECT] the theme of the day or of the readings.

November 26, 2015

In many churches throughout our country, congregations will be singing "We gather together."

The lyrics have a history with a particular poignancy this year, in the wake of the attacks in Africa, the Middle East, and perhaps especially in France and Belgium.

First the lyrics, followed by the history.

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;

he chastens and hastens his will to make known;

the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;

sing praises to his name; he forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,

ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;

so from the beginning the fight we were winning:

thou, Lord, wast at our side: all glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,

and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.

Let thy congregation escape tribulation:

they Name be every praised! O Lord, make us free!

During the Eighty Years' War, also known as the Dutch War of Independence, from1568–1648, the Netherlanders fought against the Spanish Empire and its Catholic king, Philip II.

In 1597 Adrianus Valerius wrote a hymn to celebrate the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands' victory over Spain in the Battle of Turnhout. The Catholic Empire had forbidden Protestant Nederlanders to gather for worship, and so the first line of the hymn, Wilt heden nu treden, "We gather together," was a triumphant proclamation of their newly-won freedom. The hymn was first published in a collection of Dutch patriotic songs in 1626.

In 1877 Eduard Kremser, of Vienna, Austria, wrote the tune that bears his name (Kremser), and which is familiar to Americans. In 1894, New Yorker Theodore Bakertranslated the Dutch words into English. It first appeared in the Episcopal Church's Hymnal in 1940.

In the early seventeenth century, the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands founded New Netherland, an area encompassing what is today eastern New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Its capital was New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. When the first Dutch Reformed Church met for worship in 1628, its members faithfully followed the tenets of the Church back home in the Netherlands. One of those tenets forbade the singing of "secular" hymns; only the Psalms could be sung in worship.

It wasn't until 1937 that the Dutch Reformed Church in America allowed the singing of hymns, and the first hymn in its first hymnal was "We gather together."

This is a recording at St. John's Episcopal Church, Detroit, published on August 1, 2013.

November 25, 2015

"Man and his weakness and shortsightedness believes he must make choices in this life. He trembles at the risks he takes. We do know fear.

"But, no! Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when your eyes are opened. And we come to realize that mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it in gratitude.Mercy imposes no conditions.

"And, lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted. Yes, we even get back what we rejected.

November 24, 2015

This is the eleventh installment in a series of excerpts from Gene Seehafer's Monday to Saturday Prayers: For Men and Women in Business. Here are Gene's 27th and 28th prayers.

"Space Perspective

"The joy of the Lord is your strength. *

"As I withdraw from the day's work and turn to prayer, Lord, help me to mediate from the perspective of Astronaut Frank Borman's first prayer from space:

"Give us, O God, the vision which can see thy love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust the goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts, and show us what each of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace. **

"Lord, help me to broaden my perspective at the speed of space flight and to see totally my business life and my personal life as related to eternity. Guide me in my personal self-management, and in the management of others keep me ever mindful that the words of the wise, spoken softly, are the most effective means of communication.

"Unanswered Requests

"Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. ***

"I want to thank you, Lord Jesus, for not responding to some of the requests I've been bringing to you lately. I'm far too close to my problems, Lord, and can't see the forest for the trees.

"I asked for the wrong things. I wanted to fit you into my mold. I was restless and didn't wait for your guidance. Thanks for not going along with me.

"Help me, Lord, to have the wisdom to request the right kind of guidance from you. Give me patience for you see my problem, and what I feel are my needs and those of this company, in far different perspective than I do.

"Help me quit trying to do both your short-range and your long-range planning for you.

November 23, 2015

This is the tenth installment in a series of excerpts from Gene Seehafer's Monday to Saturday Prayers: For Men and Women in Business. This is Gene's 25th prayer, followed by a comment by me and a prayer I use weekly, on Fridays.

"Handling Self-Doubt

"And Jesus went out and sawe moche people, and had compassion on them, because they were lyke shepe which had no shepherde. And he began to teache them many thinges. *

"Lord and father, I especially know the need of you at this hour when I have self-doubt— vague concerns about my own abilities and additional concerns about my Christian faith.

"For no specific reason, Lord, I have vague concerns.

"There's a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"I feel disoriented.

"It's moments like these when I hold doubts about the Christian faith in general and my ability to be both a Christian in worship and a Christian in business. I strike back in prayer.

"Reach out to me, God, and give me greater faith.

"Reassure me, Lord, that all humans have some doubts like this at times.

"Help me know that in my deepest moments of despair I have within me sufficient God-given energy to see me through these unpleasant moments of self-doubt— that I can fight back and win!"

" * Mark 6:34, Tyndale Bible (1535).

My comment and the prayer I use on Fridays.

Gene's asking the Holy Spirit to help him learn how "to doubt his doubts" reminded me about my road back to faith, which I had lost my freshman year in college. Among the steps I took along that road back to faith was this:

I decided that, if I were going to be a thorough-going skeptic, I should be skeptical of my skepticism! And so I began to pray as if there were a God listening, and to act as though the Christian faith were true.

And here's the prayer:

Come to me, Lord Jesus Christ, in your understanding love, when all around me seems dark and uncertain, when my faith is low and I cannot feel you near, and I find it hard to pray. Come to me, then, dear Lord, as you came to your disciples, in the darkest hour of the night, and let the light of your presence dispel my fears, renew my trust, and bring peace to my heart, for your tender mercies' sake. Amen.

November 22, 2015

This is the ninth installment in a series of excerpts from Gene Seehafer's Monday to Saturday Prayers: For Men and Women in Business. These are Gene's 20th prayer (with a bonus, one-word prayer) and 23rd prayers.

"Self-Help

"If any of you falls short in wisdom, he should ask God for it and it will be given him, for God is a generous giver who neither refuses nor reproaches anyone. *

"Lord, I do fall short in wisdom.

"Lord, I ask for wisdom.

"And help me use my wisdom wisely.

X

"A prayer to be said when the world has gotten you down, and you feel rotten, and you're too doggone tired to pray, and you're in a big hurry and besides you're mad at everybody— Help.

"Its 'One of those Days'

"Hear me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside a man that, entering into him, can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile a man (Mark 7:14-15, Confraternity Edition, 1949).

"God in heaven, I'm truly not griping, because many days and many weeks go so very well. But today was one of those days. In fact it's been that way for many, many days. I can't seem to do my best, I can't even seem to do a mediocre job. And I know, Father, my track record with you is far from perfect.

"Not all my business decisions and not all my business dealings reflected your teachings.

"I've tried your patience, I'm sure, even as forgiving as you are, Father.

"I've failed you and I've failed myself. Lord, forgive me.

"In turn, Lord, let me forgive those who've tried my patience and those whose decisions left much to be desired. Help all of us to get through those days and those weeks when a lot of little things and a lot of big things seem to go wrong at the same time. When it's one of those bad days, Lord, help us to show others your love in our own love and understanding.

November 21, 2015

Today I am snow-bound, and missing the second day of our Diocesan Convention after 27 years of perfect attendance as the Rector of St. Gregory's Episcopal Church, Deerfield.

But yesterday, before the snow, Ingrid and I were there for the first day of Convention, as new members of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Barrington Hills.

And the highlight of that day was Becca Stevens and her two workshops and keynote address about her ministry at Thistle Farms.

Thanks to a college classmate and his wife, Ingrid and I first learned about Thistle Farms in 2013 when we visited the Thistle Stop Café in Nashville, Tennessee.

Since then, we and St. Gregory's have supported Thistle Farms in various ways, through purchasing their products and supporting scholarships for their annual convention (for example here and here and here).

A few of my notes from Becca's talks:

1. "We are not called to change the world but to love the world." *

2. "Where did your brokenness begin, and who were the agents of mercy who helped heal you?

3. "Forgiveness brought us here."

4. "Healing is an intentional walk we make toward wholeness."

* Because love is what heals the world. The motto of Thistle Farms is Love Heals.

Becca also quoted something her dad wrote on a little piece of paper she found in his Book of Common Prayer— the only note she has in his handwriting:

"In the shadow of his cross, may your soul find rest."

You can read about her discovery of that note in her inspiring book, Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling (New York: Jericho Books, 2013), on page 23.